Closeted

Deb wasn't the only one working on her closet this past week. My hall closet has always been a lonely and ignored space. It's too small to dump too much in and it has had a faintly funky smell forever. I tried to get photos of the interior damage - 1/2" wide 12" long crack, too many small cracks to count, dents from shoes & vacuum and the most gosh awful beige. I was just going to refinish the door but once I got it cleaned out I could not stay. Not happening! The door took me two days to strip, more than 9 layers of paint - what were previous owner's thinking with the green with brown inset? The closet took another three because I had to strip it, patch, caulk, sand, texture and then it sucked up paint. And just when I thought I was done Jim mentions that the door has never closed well so maybe he should take a belt sander to my newly painted door. Curses! So, more painting - if you are keeping track we are now on day 7. Finally I got the door back in the house and hung. Not impressive for anyone other than me.

Favorites in Review.

What was your favorite 'home improvement' project of 2011? Here's a rundown of one of mine:

Office For Two

First, here's the 'before' picture:



Pretty horrific. This was before I agreed to give up
my office and move into this one with Steve.
Yes, I'm brave.

 

We purchased a new desk for Steve from Office Depot. Although it is much larger than his Dad's old roll top, the storage is much more useful. It came 'flat packed', so we spent a few hours assembling it.  We make a great assembly team. I was pretty ruthless in what I let him keep in the office. Only stuff that he actually used on a regular basis was allowed, the rest was relegated to a large closet in the basement. The knick-knacks are all family memorabilia.



Even though this room is only about 10'x11' (plus closet), we were able to
keep the loveseat - which is now more usable...

 

...and then I added a few of my embroidery pieces for a little bit of fun.



My office area is carved out of the closet. I love my drawers from IKEA - they were another assembly project that Steve and I did together.  I hung the lights with the help of Alex. On either side of the desktop I hung a metal pegboard - which holds hanging shelves (yes, IKEA shelves).  I ordered the pegboard from Amazon.



Now let's see yours...

Christmas Dress

 Here it is. The long-awaited photos of Miriam's fantastic Christmas dress. Yes, it's the right length. The hair bow on top? That was mine when I was a little girl.

Speaking of Christmas, here is S. with his self-made soft taco at the Hispanic themed ward Christmas party.

Walls, Walls, Walls...

Marcy sent me a belated birthday package (by way of Nathan and Rebekah).  In it, she included six metal stars.  It was only fitting, as she was the one to point out that my gallery wall needed a little something over the Boeing sign. After seeing the stars, I decided to  look for paint options before putting six more holes in my wall.  I spotted a color I liked at Fred Meyer (it may or may not have been Dutch Boy (or possibly Glidden??), the color name is 'spinnaker').  I prefer Behr brand paint, so I didn't buy the paint - I figured I'd get it color-matched at Home Depot after Christmas.

Steve and Rebekah took some initiative and bought the paint before Christmas. I might possibly have been the only woman in America to receive a gallon of paint for Christmas.  It was a Christmas miracle. 



This is the 'before'...greenish walls, no stars, no ceiling lights.



After...stars, lights, and fresh paint.
(the lights are from IKEA - Basisk $16.99 each)

Ornaments

Debbie posted a pic on Pinterest that had six versions of felt animal ornaments. Lauren needed to craft one day and turned out the following three. She decided to go the easy route and not stitch around them but they are adorable and super easy!

Artsy

I have actually done quite a bit of sewing and other craftiness lately...but since most of the crap awesomeness is going to be Christmas presents, I can't really show any pictures for a few weeks.

Here's something I can show you:

Keira and I had a ton of fun doing backgrounds on canvas. Keira used different colors, but the principle is the same - choose two or three or four colors of paint and squirt some directly on the canvas, then spread with a dry paintbrush - blending a bit as you go.

I found these stencils at Michael's in the art aisle in the drafting supplies.  Using my 40% coupon they ended up only costing two or three bucks - which is an even better steal when you realize that there are TWO complete sets.  One set of 3/4 inch and one set of 1 inch both have complete upper and lower case and numbers!

Butterick 3762 - Pattern Review

I was looking for a simple dress pattern for my granddaughter for her birthday/Christmas dress.  I had already bought some very busy fabric, so I knew I didn't want a busy style - and since the Butterick patterns were only a dollar (JoAnn's, Black Friday), this was the one I went with.

I'm not really sure that I ought to call this a 'pattern review' since I changed several things about it, didn't follow the directions, and don't know yet whether the size is true or not, but here goes.